[time-nuts] hm H Maser

Dr. David Kirkby (Kirkby Microwave Ltd) drkirkby at kirkbymicrowave.co.uk
Mon Jan 9 09:35:32 UTC 2017


On 8 Jan 2017 17:34, "Bob Camp" <kb8tq at n1k.org> wrote:

> You are talking about a project that will take many years and likely
> more money than the price of a new home. If that is “fun money”, then
> fine. For most people that sort of commitment is a bit outside the range
> of do it for fun.

It would be interesting to see your breakdown of the costs and man hours
for an H2 maser. I suspect that others would find cheaper/faster solutions.

> Even as a “fun project”, I question the bang for the buck. If cost and
time
> are no object, why not do an optical ion standard or a Cesium fountain?
> I would suggest that both are more cool than than a maser and likely
> have a lot more fun aspects to them. You then would have something
> truly unique and not simply a more expensive / poorer performing example
> of something you could have bought.

You raise an interesting point.

I suspect that if a serious attempt was made at a caesium fountain by a
*group* of people, they might end up with donated parts from places like
NIST, NPL etc.

Commercial sponsorship  could conceivability be an option to funding such a
project, as could wealthy individuals like Richard Branson or James Dyson,
both of whom are interested in technically challenging projects.

$100 would not go far, but I personally would be willing to donate $100
towards the cost of such a project, just to feel part of it.

> Bob

Dave



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